Actually it has nothing to do with cream and it definitely has nothing to do with liquid cream or even liquid + cream. It’s just an absurd name- if you make it my way!

Ras malai is a traditional Indian sweet, originating from West Bengal. God I love the Bengalis for having invented this. It’s my favourite dessert ever.

These tiny balls of cottage cheese are soaked in a creamy milk and sugar and eaten with the milk.

It’s a tricky and complicated recipe BUT this version (handed down by my aunt) is easy, breezy and beautiful (yes it’s a cover-worthy dessert)

What you need:

For the Malai: Creamy balls

1 cup of Nido milk powder (or any other brand)

1 egg

1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the Ras: Milk Syrup

1lt milk

1/2 can unsweetened evaporated milk

1/2 cup sugar

Saffron strands

1 tsp cardamom powder

What to do:

1. Make Ras. Boil everything together and make sure that the flame is med, do not let it burn!

2. Make the malai. Sift the milk powder with baking powder, beat in the egg and knead to form a sticky dough. You may be tempted to add water, but resist the temptation. Form tiny balls (they will swell)

3. Put the balls in the boiling milk and simmer for 15-20 minutes till balls swell up and are soft in the centre.

The best part about Summer is the Mango of course. The Alphonso Mango to be more specific.

The Mango Season is almost like a festival one to be prolonged and savoured without bothering about trivial obstacles like weight loss or diabetes. My dear (severely diabetic) grandmother bought 6 dozen of these crimson shells of happiness.

For most of the part, we just eat them whole: It really is nonpareil in it’s natural form. But what harm is it to smootie it or to aamras it or to tart it or cheesecake is?

And there certainly is no harm in eating it for breakfast.

A couple of days back I twittered about the boredom in breakfast dishes. I take that back. If mangoes were to be my daily morning fix; so be it.

As though the idea of gulping thick sweet crimson mango flesh wasn’t good enough, I added a bendy straw for additional joy. Of course I’ve always known and used straws but my awareness towards bendy straws arose from an episode of ugly betty (believe it or not). Well what can I say about the power of suggestion, we had the straws at home in a week.

I don’t know what it is about bending a plastic straw toward my face that gives me immense comfort and joy, really.

Bendy Straw Mango Smoothie

What you need:

1 ripe mango (pref alphonso)

1/4 cup milk

4-5 ice cubes

1 bendy straw

What to do:

1. Blend the mango, milk and ice cubes.

2. Pour into a glass and place your bendy straw in a strategic position (the way you like it) Drink up the crimson joy.

I have this archaic ice cream maker that I bought a really long time ago and never really used it. It’s quite lousy as I learned soon after I started making my frozen yogurt..Never mind that it never really froze in the machine, my freezer came to the rescue and the result was FAB.

It was really simple and a lot of fun. I would do it again but maybe with a new ice-cream maker.

What you need: (serves: as much as you want)

A really creamy variety of yogurt or yogurt that has been hung in a cheesecloth for 4-6 hoursVanilla extract/essencePowdered sugar

What to do:

1. Beat the yogurt with the sugar and vanilla2. Freeze as per ice cream maker manufacturers instructions.

I call this the All Dairy pudding. Because that’s exactly what this is an all dairy pudding. I don’t use anything to thicken it and it has no flours as such but it’s still a pudding. Did I forget to mention, it has only two ingredients?

I absolutely adore this pudding. I could eat it everyday.

What you need:

1/2 cup of Thick Yogurt1/4 cup of Sweetened Condensed Milk

What to do:

1. In a microwave safe bowl mix the two ingredients well. Add more or less condensed milk depending on your preference.2. Important step: Microwave at 60% for 20-30 seconds till you see a very few bubbles come out. Do Not OVERCOOK! it will make the pudding grainy and weird. You just want to set the yogurt not curdle it.3.When moved, the pudding should reveal water below from the yogurt. But it should be firm and not granular.4. Refrigerate for an hour till chilled.